The Issue of Entrepreneurial Leadership - Assignment Example

Name: Title: Institution: Q 1: What leadership attributes have the greatest cross-cultural variability? What leadership attributes are best suited for UAE public sector organizations? Leadership attributes are the leadership qualities, which a leader should possess in order to have people, follow him or her in terms of the decisions he or she makes (Smilor & Sexton, 1996). Different leaders make different decisions depending on the environment they are in. We live in a diverse world where we have different cultures in every part of this world and a decision made by a leader in the United States of America does not necessarily mean that is applicable in Asia or Africa. This in turn creates variability in decisions made by different leaders across the world depending on which part they come or lead from. According to DuBrin (2008), some of the leadership attributes which have the greatest cross-cultural variability include: Power Distance, which concerns the degree to which a culture accepts and reinforces the fact that power is distributed unevenly in the society. Members of high power distance such as Malaysia are expected to show a lot of respect to their superiors but that again does not mean that the superiors do not respect their juniors. The power distance again maybe brought by other factors like age, social status or family role. Members of low power distance like Denmark are less comfortable with hierarchy and organizational structure and their leaders tend to involve everyone in the organization in decision making irrespective of the position he or she holds. Another leadership attribute with cross-cultural variability is individualism/collectivism. Individualist cultures show a relative preference for the individual in contrast to the group. Members of individualist cultures such as the UK maintain loose social structures that are characterized by independence, the importance of individuals’ rights and the recognition of personal initiative and achievement. On the contrary, countries like Venezuela embrace collectivism where the leaders value the overall good of and loyalty to the group. Another attribute is Uncertainty avoidance. This refers to the degree to which cultural members are willing to accept and deal with ambiguous or risky situations. Cultures with high levels of uncertainty avoidance such as Greece prefer structure and predictability, which results in explicit rules of behavior and strict laws. Leaders of these societies tend to be risk averse and they hardly make decisions which are risky or would otherwise put the organization into risk. In societies with low uncertainty avoidance such as Singapore there is a preference for unstructured situations and ambiguity, which favors risk taking, thereby leading to innovations and new entrepreneurial activities. Another attribute is Masculinity/Femininity. Masculine cultures such as Japan are thought to reflect a dominance of tough values such as achievement, assertiveness, competition and material success, which are almost universally associated with male roles. In contrast, feminine cultures focus on tender values such as personal relationships, care for others, and quality of life. Less feminine cultures like Sweden put less emphasis in matters regarding gender roles in the society. What leadership attributes are best suited for UAE public sector organizations? The best attributes suited for UAE include; the leaders should be Identifiers’ of business growth opportunities. In the UAE, the leaders should come together with a common goal of identifying business opportunities which would even take them to another level of development. This will in turn create more jobs for the people and also increasing per capita income among residents thereby reducing poverty levels (Greenberg, McKone-Sweet & Wilson, 2011). The next attribute is that the leaders should be the monitors of economic and political trends. As leaders of the public sector, political trends can have a big impact on businesses. If the political trend is positive, there will be more opportunities leading to economic growth but if the political trend is negative .then this would erode the economic gains made before. Therefore, as leaders of the public sector, should come together and try to stem any force that may erode the gains they may have made before. Another attribute is that they should be evaluators of risks and opportunities. As a business leader, you should be a risk taker rather than risk averse but at the same time evaluate the impacts of the risks taken. As a leader, one should not make decisions blindly in disregard of the risks involved, and therefore for UAE public sector to thrive, the leaders should take into consideration all that is in hand and make conclusive decisions. The next attribute is that they should be strategists. Especially for public sector, the leaders should come up with strategies which would absorb any negative impacts on the businesses from external sources be it political, economical or otherwise. The UAE public sector leaders should come up unique and tailored strategies in line with their cultures and so forth. In conclusion, the leaders should be visionary and totally committed in serving and taking care of the interests of the citizens. Question 2 How to Manage Diversity in UAE Business Organizations Diversity management should not be restricted to cultural differences alone. Diversity is defined in terms of all attributes that make people unique; race, nationality, education, religion, gender or even political ideology. Managing diversity involves planning and implementing systems, procedures and practices to people to maximize gains that result from every individual’s unique capabilities and orientations. Management approach to diversity should be that of inclusion. There should be specific policies for inclusion of minority groups in the work force and group of suppliers. This can be made possible through affirmative action for the less privileged groups such as women and members of minority communities. It is regarded as a source of strength that the organization uses to create value for itself in the industry. Diversity is not only accepted, but it is also manipulated to result to synergistic effects where the strengths of various groups are capitalized on to result to a greater value than the sum of individual competencies. Diversity should not be managed internally alone. It should extend to other stakeholders such as suppliers, vendors, customers and business partners. There ought to be strategies to increase purchases from minority-owned business. Good diversity management results to wider business engagement and consequently increased revenues. When all parties are accorded equal opportunity to grow, then they become better supplies, better customers or better employees, which is the wish of every entity (Sanger, 2012). The golden rule in diversity management is ‘treat others as you would like them to treat you.’ This entails standardizing the policies that guide work ethics. Leaders therefore, need to be cautious to circumstances to which various individuals subscribe. If there are inherent weaknesses in the way an individual is, for instance slow to work, then that should not be the means to rate the person. The interrelationships between the staff members and managers and their subordinates should have shared values such as respect and recognition. At every time, employees should be treated with equality and handled as the most important resources of the organization. Human beings are susceptible to emotions, feelings and perceptions and hence would assess the kind of treatment they receive and out of that may increase or decrease their contribution to organization. Managing diversity entails acknowledging people’s differences and appreciating the differences as valuable tool that can be used as a competitive advantage by the business (Kuratko, 2008). In this regard all forms of discrimination lacks rationale or justification and should be avoided at all costs. This should be enhanced at all levels of organization, from top management to the junior workers. It would be prudent for leaders of business organizations to identify the strengths that should be tapped and match it with a specific area of management. The policy of inclusion should be applied from the onset. It follows that at recruitment stage, the management should ensure that the opportunities are advertised in such as way that the maximum number of people can apply. The selection process should be based on merit but still respect the historical injustices of particular applicant. For example, a particular person may hail form a non-English speaking country and suffer accent problems in the use of the language. Such an attribute should not influence the decision to hire him/her or not. This is because it does not in any way represent his/her potential to work; it is only an attribute of circumstances. Leaders must be willing to challenge and change organizational practices that present barriers to different groups. For instance, people subscribe to different religious backgrounds. There could be a company policy regarding the working days in a week; if such does not provide for a day of worship for people of a particular religion, such should be adjusted. Employees will be able to treat one another in a cordial manner if they feel that their interests are equally represented in the company policy. Finally, organizations should facilitate and run programs that provide training and advice on the variety of situations that occur. The role of facilitation is the proper province of the leader. The leader uses his/her position and expert power to guide workers on technical matters of company operations and with respect to diversity, how to deal with people of diverse backgrounds and capabilities. The most important thing is to create a corporate culture that respects and appreciates diversity. Then, where conflicts arise, the leader should act with speed and skill to quell the conflict whereby each party wins. At every time the leader should think about the most stringent management approach that enables the skills of every person be as effective as possible in an environment of diversity. References DuBrin, AJ 2008. Essentials of Management Cengage Learning Greenberg,D, McKone-Sweet,K & Wilson, J 2011.The New Entrepreneurial Leader: Developing Leaders Who create Social, Environmental, and Economic Value in an Unknowable World. Berrett-Koehler Publishers Kuratko, DF 2008. Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, Practice. Cengage Learning Sanger, WS 2012. Diversity Strategy at General Mills. Speech at Annual Multi-cultural Forum. Minneapolis. Smilor, WR & Sexton, DL 1996. Leadership and Entrepreneurship: Personal and Organizational Development in Entrepreneurial Ventures. 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